Table of Symbols

The symbols used in this document are summarized in the Table of Symbols along with their units. Throughout the document, symbols in bold will represent vectors, and scalars otherwise. The symbols are listed in alphabetical order. For vector quantities, the units shown are for each component of the vector.

SymbolDescriptionUnits
\({a_{\text{x}}}\)\(x\)-component of acceleration\(\frac{\text{m}}{\text{s}^{2}}\)
\({a_{\text{y}}}\)\(y\)-component of acceleration\(\frac{\text{m}}{\text{s}^{2}}\)
\(\boldsymbol{a}\text{(}t\text{)}\)Acceleration\(\frac{\text{m}}{\text{s}^{2}}\)
\(\boldsymbol{F}\)Force\({\text{N}}\)
\(f\)Frequency\({\text{Hz}}\)
\(\boldsymbol{g}\)Gravitational acceleration\(\frac{\text{m}}{\text{s}^{2}}\)
\(\boldsymbol{I}\)Moment of inertia\(\text{kg}\text{m}^{2}\)
\(\boldsymbol{\hat{i}}\)Unit vector–
\({L_{\text{rod}}}\)Length of the rod\({\text{m}}\)
\(m\)Mass\({\text{kg}}\)
\({p_{\text{x}}}\)\(x\)-component of position\({\text{m}}\)
\({{p_{\text{x}}}^{\text{i}}}\)\(x\)-component of initial position\({\text{m}}\)
\({p_{\text{y}}}\)\(y\)-component of position\({\text{m}}\)
\({{p_{\text{y}}}^{\text{i}}}\)\(y\)-component of initial position\({\text{m}}\)
\(\boldsymbol{p}\text{(}t\text{)}\)Position\({\text{m}}\)
\(T\)Period\({\text{s}}\)
\(\boldsymbol{T}\)Tension\({\text{N}}\)
\(t\)Time\({\text{s}}\)
\({v_{\text{x}}}\)\(x\)-component of velocity\(\frac{\text{m}}{\text{s}}\)
\({v_{\text{y}}}\)\(y\)-component of velocity\(\frac{\text{m}}{\text{s}}\)
\(\boldsymbol{v}\text{(}t\text{)}\)Velocity\(\frac{\text{m}}{\text{s}}\)
\(α\)Angular acceleration\(\frac{\text{rad}}{\text{s}^{2}}\)
\(θ\)Angular displacement\({\text{rad}}\)
\({θ_{i}}\)Initial pendulum angle\({\text{rad}}\)
\({θ_{p}}\)Displacement angle of the pendulum\({\text{rad}}\)
\(π\)Ratio of circumference to diameter for any circle–
\(\boldsymbol{τ}\)Torque\(\text{N}\text{m}\)
\(Ω\)Angular frequency\({\text{s}}\)
\(ω\)Angular velocity\(\frac{\text{rad}}{\text{s}}\)

Table of Symbols